Tag Archives: Illustration

Amduscias is a demon and a powerful Grand Duke of hell with 29 Legions to his name and is the demon most connected to music with Goetia’s attributing him to bending music to his will.

His new follower has a bit of the same power.

On her right arm are the symbols for Cinder, Penetrate, and then the Sigil of Amduscias, followed by the words “Ave Satanas” on her wrist. On her left arm are the words “Music is Life”, the symbol for Sulfur, and the Sigil of Lucifer.

Her shirt says “In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas”, a shorter version of the Latin Phrase “In nomine Dei nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi” (In the name of our God, Satan Lucifer of the Most High). On her stomach is “For thi is the glory.” Both are references to “Ora Pro Nobis Lucifer” by Behemoth. “Thi” is a bit of a play on words: The actual words are “For thine is the glory.” Since it leads to her thigh, I think you get the rest.

The Creative 365 project is me doing everything I can to do something amazing and creative every single day for a year! Every month, I plan on posting the best pieces from it for you here!

Of all the months in this project, December was the hardest. I was working on a bunch of different commissions at the start of the month, along with a full-time job, and that left little time to do something for myself or to just relax. Even after all the digital illustrations, it was tough for me to sit-down and start illustrating again at my desk. By Christmas Eve I had built my new desk, which really inspired me to draw like crazy!

The Creative 365 project is me doing everything I can to do something amazing and creative every single day for a year! Every month, I plan on posting the best pieces from it for you here!

It was a month of experimentation and pushing new limits. We lost of Jeff Hanneman of Slayer, Philadelphia decided to install more cameras, and I decided to motivate myself to create some of the best work I’ve done to date.

I wound up attempting a redesign of Model Mayhem, experimenting with mixed-media, and a few typography exercises. All in all, it was a pretty solid month.

In 2002, I was in my Senior Year of High School. I was only 17, and still getting into metal. At this point, I had already gone to my first metal show (Megadeth, October 2001), and I was trying to find more bands to get into. At this point, I had gone from Aerosmith and Hair Metal to Metallica to Megadeth. I wasn’t into Anthrax just yet, and Korn and the rest of Nu-Metal didn’t really interest me much. So what could fill the void?

Enter Tower Records and their recommendation for the top essential metal albums. In it, they listed the three best Slayer albums, and the list help up incredibly true. I had never listened to Slayer, and I got my first taste with “South of Heaven”. By graduation, I owned most of their discography.

When I think of my art, there are a lot of bands that help inspire me and drive me to draw. Slayer are in the Top 5 of bands that contributed to me directly doing art.

Did Slayer make to want to do things? HELL YEAH! It drove me to create, it drove me to draw, it drove me to go skateboarding, and it drove me to want to do amazing stuff with my life!

When I lost my mom, there were a few songs and albums that helped me get through it, and I can’t tell you how much the song “Disciple” helped. It drove me to create the best art I could, and helped me scream and understand how I felt.

Whenever I wear my Slayer shirt, I feel strong and determined. It isn’t because I’m supporting a band, the music, or the scene; its because this band helps to give me the confidence to believe in myself.

And if I learned anything the last 2 days, its this: Metal heads don’t cry, we just listen to Slayer and tough it out.

The Creative 365 project is me doing everything I can to do something amazing and creative every single day for a year! Every month, I plan on posting the best pieces from it for you here!

This month I saw my work grow and expand more than I thought. There wasn’t as much illustration as I would have liked, but the graphic design and photography I did are among some of my best! There were a lot of bad days, but the work doesn’t reflect it. In fact, in a lot of cases, it overcame them.

If there is one lesson to be learned, it’s this: Drawn even when you hate it, design even if you wish you didn’t have to, and capture every moment you can.

The piece you see is one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever created. In 2012, I heard Lamb of God, easily one of my favorite bands of all time, was coming to Philadelphia and were going to have a Meet-and-Greet before the show. I decided that since I couldn’t make it to the show I would at least get Lamb of God to sign something for me, so after some thought, I decided to just go ahead and do a gig poster JUST for them. Literally! I only made 3 copies: Two for me and one for them. The plan was to get two small ones, give them one, and one large version to get signed that I could put up on my wall.

When I arrived at the FYE at Broad and Chestnut, I had run over from work which was just down the street, just 7 blocks away, and I was near the end of the line. I spoke to other awesome fans, met an awesome rep from Sony who took my photo with the poster, and I was getting really excited! Finally, the moment arrived and I got to meet the band, and, despite how many times I’ve met or worked with famous people or someone I admire, I still was starstruck! I wound up barely talking and just having a giant grin on my face! The band was incredibly nice, and they signed the new album, “Resolution”, for me along with the posters. They were all really thrilled with it and like it!

That’s when I got to Randy Blythe, the front man for Lamb of God. He always stood tall to me… partly because he’s a good foot taller than me, but also because he has one hell of a voice! His personality shone through, and he loved the poster! He wound up taking a photo of it and putting it on his Twitter feed! Randy then turned to me and asked, “Hey, are you going to the show tonight?” “No, I can’t, I don’t have a ticket, but I really hope you have a great show tonight!” That’s when he turned to someone and handed me a piece of cloth. “Enjoy the show tonight, man, you earned it!” It was a pass to the show! I could hardly believe it!

I wound up walking down the stairs from the meet-and-greet and out the door with a giant grin on my face! I couldn’t believe it! Not only did I get to meet one of my favorite bands, not only did they like my work, but I just got a free ticket to the show right from them! It was surreal, and like I could hear people calling my name. And they were. “LARRY!” I turned around, all the guys in Lamb of God were yelling my name… because I left my CD up there.

I mentioned at least once how awesome it would be to actually get to do some design work for them, and who knows, maybe it’ll come true soon.

I got a message from his management and, long story short, I got commissioned to do a shirt for him! He had a specific idea, and even sent me an original sketch of what layout he wanted. I kept my art incredibly true to it, and I’m glad to hear that he liked the piece, too!

The design is based on Vincent Price’s character Matthew Hopkins in the 1968 film “Witchfinder General”. I actually never got to hear the song, “Curse The Living”, before I drew it, and I’m still dying to get my hands on the new album “The Dixie Dead” so I can. That said, I wound up listening to all his solo work while working on it.

In the end, I’m incredibly proud of this shirt and I had a great time doing it! This was a dream come true, and hopefully I’ll get to work for more people I look up to and admire!

The shirt is being sold on his 2013 West Coast tour, and hopefully will be available for a long, long, long time!